Spray applicators, towels, and sponges have been used for decades as staple items when faced with the task of cleaning a table or bar, as in the home or a restaurant. Over time, various innovations have been made which attempt to integrate a device that applies a cleaning solution with a device that distributes the cleaning solution over the surface and wipes or scrubs the surface to be cleaned. The prior art offers many examples: U.S. Pat. No. 7,743,947, U.S. Pat. No. 8,371,479, and U.S. Pat. App. 2010/0301136 are typical. All of these inventions disclose a device that includes a hand-pump sprayer for applying a cleaning solution integrated with a dispenser for wipes to be used to distribute the cleaning solution over the surface while cleaning and scrubbing it. The principle drawback of these—and numerous other devices like them—is that the user must hold the wipe in his hand while using it thus allowing the cleaning solutions to contact the user's hand. While most cleaning solutions are relatively benign chemically, some are less so, and repeated contact with the skin is unhealthy. Similarly, devices to apply grooming solutions or insecticides to a pet's fur coat are also well known. Generally, such approaches offer numerous other practical disadvantages. Specifically: 1) Paper towels are used once, and then discarded. This adds to the total cost of use and creates excess refuse in already overburdened landfills; 2) Since fluid is applied directly to the paper towel, by necessity some of it must also be discarded with the towel, thus leading to overuse and waste of the fluid; 3) The paper towels ordinarily used with such devices do not clean particularly well, in some cases leaving up to 99% more contaminant on “cleaned” surfaces than alternative materials such as microfiber cloth; and, 4) The mechanical pumps used in these devices invariably break, thus necessitating a replacement device and adding to the total cost of operation and the amount of refuse generated.
Several devices have been invented that seek to solve this problem—albeit in very specialized—applications. U.S. Pat. App. 2011/0243643 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,841,795 disclose such devices. The former comprises a handheld scrubber with scrubbing pad attached to the bottom of the device and a cavity for receiving a separate spray bottle of cleaning solution. The user actuates the sprayer with his finger, and the spray is directed through the bottom of the device onto the back of the pad. The latter device comprises a roller cleaner with adjoining cavity for receiving a separate spray bottle of cleaning solution. The user actuates the sprayer with his finger, directs the spray at the surface to be cleaned, and then uses the roller to clean the surface and remove the cleaner. This device has the disadvantage of not allowing the user to scrub the surface to be cleaned and is thus suitable only for delicate surfaces—such as flat-panel displays. Both of these devices have the disadvantage of utilizing a separate spray bottle for cleaner. This has the same disadvantage as discussed above: That the mechanical pumps used in these devices break, thus necessitating a replacement device. Also, such separate bottles are easy to misplace and contain only limited amounts of cleaning solution.
Other devices that seek to combine the bottle containing the cleaning solution with the applicator pad are known in the prior art. One device comprises a squeeze bottle with applicator pad attached to the open neck. The user squeezes the bottle, saturates the pad and then cleans the surface. Such devices mimic similar devices for dispensing shoe polish, paint, and the like. However, these devices are generally unsuitable for cleaning solutions because as the user scrubs the surface to be cleaned, he naturally grips the bottle more tightly, thus squeezing the bottle and dispensing excess cleaning fluid from the bottle. Moreover, placed as it is at the end of the device, the pads tend to be small and unsuited for dealing with large surfaces. One device in the prior art used to apply pet shampoo addresses many of these issues but fails to include a mechanism for changing cleaning pads or applicator appliances, thus rendering it a single purpose device.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a hand-held applicator for cleaning, disinfecting, and pet care solutions that: 1) Contains the solution; 2) Provides a sufficiently large surface for cleaning, scrubbing and/or applying the solution to a surface; 3) Uses pads and applicator appliances that are changeable, washable, and thus reusable many times; 4) Reduces the amount of solution actually used, since pads and applicator appliances are reusable, and solution is not thrown away with pads as they are disposed of; 5) Cleans surface contaminants far better than existing cleaners; and, 6) Provides a means of accurately metering the amount of solution applied to the surface.